Re-membering, and re-union

As Christ breaks bread and bids us share, each proud division ends.

The love that made us, makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

---Brian Wren

The word “communion” has shadows of many other words in it. I see community, common, commune, union, unity (also ‘ion’, but that doesn’t fit with this devotional!). What is it about communion that makes us keep it central to our religious tradition? Why is it so important to us? I think it is the concept of ‘one-ness’ that communion implies. Brian Wren has gracefully captured that yearning we have for belonging in his hymn, 'I Come with Joy' (set to a lilting American tune that will always make me want to sway when I sing it). The meal is to break down barriers, to remind us through shared elements that we are the same on some fundamental level. As John Bell, preacher and musician from Scotland says, the tradition is kept to re-member the body of Christ --- to put the pieces back together, to unite us at last.

See you at the table, to re-member the body of Christ.